Local SEO benefits
Are you a physical establishment and want to increase your
turnover thanks to the Web? Good idea ! But how do you go about being truly
effective on the Internet? What are the best practices to put in place so that
your website is well optimized and brings you new customers? For local SEO services in Lahore have unique techniques to
deploy.
What is local SEO?
SEO in general
If you've ever looked for ways to optimize your website ,
you've probably heard of SEO . Although
complex, this technique allows you to
qualify your visitors based on
their search behavior in Google. In other words, it is about analyzing the
keywords they use when they make a query
in a search engine related to your field of activity. You must, then, optimize
your website for these different keywords, in order to be well referenced for
each of them.
Let's take an example. If you are a law firm, you will try
to position yourself well on “lawyer in international law”, “lawyer in
family law”, “lawyer in criminal law” or even “law firm”. Why ? Because these
are certainly the keywords your target
audience searches for when they want to
learn about these specific topics. Of course, when you choose your keywords,
you have to do it according to your specific activity. Are you more of a
specialist in foreigners' law and juvenile law? So there is no point in taking
a position on “international law”.
Local SEO: definition
Local SEO is a variation of natural referencing. As the name
suggests, the goal of this technique is to improve your position in search
engine results for a specific geographic
area . To use our example of a law firm, it is no longer a question of
targeting only general keywords such as "law firm" but rather of
specifying "law firm Namur". From then on, you maximize your visibility with local customers, who are actually your
target audience. To put it another way, by
developing a local SEO strategy , you are securing a place in what we
call proximity results.
Who is local SEO for?
Many SMEs generally
think that SEO is a technique mainly reserved for large companies. Why bother
optimizing your website, since anyway a national, or even international,
company has a better chance of getting ahead of you in Google results? However,
for small structures it is also possible to be well positioned in search
engines. This is what local SEO is for .
If you have a store
or a local business , that is to say that targets customers in a particular
geographical area (a city or a region), you have every interest in doing local SEO . Whether you're a restaurant,
bakery, gym, or clothing store, your customers and prospects want relevant
results when they are looking for you. They want Google to suggest quality business sites that are close to them (that is, with good reviews from other
customers). And anyway, what use is it for you to be well referenced for Liège
if your restaurant is located in Namur? Your customers are either Namur
residents or tourists looking for a nice place to eat.
The advantages of local SEO
Gain visibility in search engines
Competition on the web is great. Many companies from all
sectors are gradually embarking on the adventure by creating a
brand new website. Obviously, this has an impact on the level of competition , which is always
higher. The more the number of websites increases, the more complicated it
becomes for yours to be visible to Internet users . The role of SEO, whether
local or not, is to propel you among the
first Google results for certain
keywords of interest to your business.
Attract new customers
Improving the visibility of your website in search engines
allows you to rise in the first results. However, Internet users generally do
not go further than the first page of results. Most often, they are even
content to go to the first three
websites offered by Google (the first
result alone already collects 33% of clicks). Therefore, if you decide to
improve the positioning of your website, you can increase its traffic . As a result, you also
increase your chances of converting some into customers.
Target your customers precisely
Even more than
traditional natural referencing , local SEO allows you to qualify your audience by targeting very precisely the people who
interest you. Certainly, by concentrating your efforts on a city or a region,
you limit the number of Google queries among which your site will appear.
However, since this is where your customers are located, you ensure the quality
of your visitors and thus increase the
chances of a conversion. (whatever it is: visit in store, making contact via
form, request for estimate online…). And that's ultimately what you want from
your website, isn't it? That it allows you to attract new customers, by
appearing in a relevant way in Google search results.
How to optimize your local SEO?
As we have seen, developing a local SEO strategy is an
opportunity to make yourself known to Internet users when they are looking for
a business or services in a specific geographic area. It allows you to gain
visibility in search engines, increase qualified traffic to your website and
attract new customers. Now let's talk about good local SEO practices . You will
see that there are techniques to implement directly on your site (on-page) and
external tools (off-page) that help you improve your local SEO.
1.Metadata and content of your website
Metadata is an HTML
tag inserted into the header of each of
your web pages to describe its content. They
consist of a title and a description , under which you are then listed
in search engines. The goal, for a good
local SEO , is to insert in this metadata the name of the city or the
region that you are targeting, so that
Google and its robots can easily find the information.
And to be truly effective, also include your geographic
area in the content of your website .
Add it in your page title (H1), in your
text , in the alternative text of your images ... Do not forget also to
indicate your address in a contact page and, why not, in the footer too (the part
bottom of your site which is found from page to page).
2.Schema.org semantic markup
Like metadata,
Schema.org structured data
contributes to the natural referencing of your website. This is a set of
tags that helps Google robots better
understand general information about your business. Using the LocalBusiness
tag , you can clearly confirm data such
as what type of business you are, your name, official website, address,
official logo, social media, hours of operation, range of price, type of
payment accepted, your email and phone number ...
3.A mobile friendly site
Nowadays, smartphones are becoming more and more important
in natural referencing in general. This makes sense, knowing that we
are now all very connected and that we often consult our phones when we do a
search on Google. For local SEO , the
trend of mobile friendly is even more advanced. Mobile users very often do proximity searches with their phones .
Therefore, you must ensure that your website performs well on smartphones. Its
loading speed, responsive design and user experience are criteria that are
really important.
4.The host of your website and its extension
Although this criterion is not the most relevant in terms of
local SEO optimization, the fact remains that it is better to favor a server close to you as well as a national extension . The server is where your
website is stored. It is therefore logical, if you are a Belgian company
targeting Belgians, not to host your
site in the USA. Likewise, for your
domain name, favor the “.be” extension ,
which marks your proximity to the Belgian public, rather than “.com”, which has
an international dimension.
5.Local SEO and Google My Business
Google My Business
Google My Business is the essential tool for your local
off-page SEO strategy . This is the online directory developed and offered by
the famous search engine. Free, it allows any company that wishes to create a
file, which will then be found in the
Local Knowledge Graph and Google Maps . Essential to local SEO, this tool
allows you to be present in the list auto-generated by Google when Internet
users are looking for a specific type of establishment.
For example, if they make a query for "boulangerie
Paliseul", Google will list them
the addresses of bakeries with a Google
My Business listing. They can also consult this sheet by clicking on the name
of the establishment. Google also offers a
geographical map , to be able to precisely locate the bakeries in
question. All Internet users have to do is choose the establishment that tempts
them the most.
Of course, having a Google My Business account alone is not
enough. It is still necessary, in fact, that your form is well filled out. What
information is included?
·
The
name of your establishment
·
Your
geographic information : country
and precise address
·
Your phone number , website ,
opening hours and rush hours
·
Your
specific activity category (bakery rather than shop, for example)
·
A
description of your
establishment, which captures your local SEO keywords
·
Of photos
and images highlighting your company and
its products / services
·
The
opinions of your customers (stars
with the possibility of leaving a comment)
·
You can also indicate the upcoming events in
which you are participating and allow Internet users to ask you questions.
6. Opinions and recommendations
Another very important point for Google is the reviews you receive from your satisfied (or unhappy) customers . Those on
Google My Business are obviously important. They are not the only ones,
however. Certain specific websites make it possible to collect Internet users'
opinions on an establishment. This is the case, for example, with TripAdvisor,
which includes customer reviews for all establishments linked to the
tourism sector (activities, accommodation, restaurants, etc.). This is also the
case with Yelp, whose field of action is much wider, since it
allows you to give your opinion on all kinds of different businesses
(restaurants, bars, beauty salons, dentists, doctors, etc.).
7.Business directories and backlinks
Natural referencing in general is based, among other things,
on a system of links (internal and external). The backlinks
are links from other web sites that link to yours. They are also important
for your local SEO. It is for this reason that it is important to register on business directories (for example, the Yellow Pages). By providing
your website with information on your establishment, you create a backlink
(external link) which helps with your referencing.
But business directories aren't the only backlinks you can
generate to improve your local SEO. Proximity authority sites are also important. These are websites
directly linked to the geographic area you are targeting and considered by
Google to be trustworthy. This is the case, for example, with city sites
or tourist offices .
8.Social networks
Eh yes ! The social
networks also participate in your local
SEO. Facebook, for example, is very useful when it comes to local SEO. It
allows you to strengthen your local
information by including your contact details
(address, telephone number, email address, website) in its "About"
section. The social network also allows you to
promote your page locally . You then create an ad that targets only
people on Facebook who are close to you. In addition, when your Page grows and
you manage to create a tight-knit
community around you , search engines like Google can also refer you through
your Facebook account.
To conclude
Today, if you are a local establishment, local SEO is a good
way for you to be more visible in search engines. You target an audience in a
specific geographic area and use geolocation to attract qualified traffic.
The best practices explained in this article can help
you optimize your website to rank well
in local search results . In addition, well applied, these techniques are clean
and allow you not to suffer penalties from Google.
However, they are not always easy to set up. Need a helping
hand to improve your local SEO? Use a SEO agency. Its experts will be able to
advise and help you in this arduous task.
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